Ryan Meyer

• Position: AP US History teacher 
• Degrees & Alma Mater: Bachelor Degree in History and Master Degree in Teaching 
• Years at Caney Creek: 10
• Years Teaching: 15

How would other people describe your high-school self?

Someone that was very driven to be the best that I could whether it was in the classroom or playing baseball, very focused, but also very friendly.

Was there a career you wanted to pursue OR pursued before teaching?

The ideal was to play professional baseball. I got as far as division one, from there I switched to focusing on teaching.

Tell us about how you got into teaching.

I graduated in history, and then went straight into my master’s degree program to get certified in teaching and started as soon as I completed that.

What do you do outside of school for fun? Why?

Well I have a five-year-old and a six-year-old, so nowadays it primarily revolves around you know, taking care of both of them.

When people get to know you, what are they most surprised to learn about you? (If needed) What is your hidden talent? (If needed) What is something you know a weird amount about that isn’t related to something you teach?

I think a lot of people are probably most surprised to know that I did play baseball in college.  That usually blows them away when they when they hear that

Tell us the story about what you are most proud of yourself for.

Couple of years ago in 2019, I received the Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year and you know, being a teacher of US history, that means a lot to be recognized by an organization of veterans who dedicated their lives to this country and so to be recognized by them really means a lot.

Who is someone you are thankful for and why?

I’m thankful for my parents for raising me the way that I am, sticking with me but also kind of giving me the freedom to make my own decisions and be successful as well as fail, but learn from those failures, so definitely my parents.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Take more risks. Be okay with failure as long as you’re willing to learn from failure.

What do you hope to be remembered for?

I hope to be remembered as someone who wanted to see other people succeed, someone who wanted to teach people not necessarily as a teacher about history but just learning, learning about others and other people and other events so that they themselves can can learn from these things and hopefully be a better person themselves.

What’s on your bucket list? (If needed) What aspirations do you have for the future?

Traveling, there’s countries around the world that I’d like to go to. I’ve been to Spain. I’ve been to England. I’ve been to Russia. I’ve been to places in the Caribbean but there’s a lot of places that I still want to go. So that’s the bucket list.

Favorites

• Food: Pizza
• Restaurant: Woodson’s Local Tap + Kitchen
• Music: Early 2000s Music 
• TV Show: “Seinfeld”
• Book: “Jefferson” by Max Byrd 
• Teacher: Andrew McGregor